Love of photography has Sharon Norman going places

Sharon Norman considers herself a late bloomer. It wasn’t until 2011 that the 52-year-old New Philadelphia resident, who used to take her photos on an iPhone, decided she would like to get a real camera and see what would happen.

It wasn’t until 2011 that the 52-year-old New Philadelphia resident, who used to take her photos on an iPhone, decided she would like to get a real camera and see what would happen.

“I had the empty-nest syndrome,” said Norman. “The kids were gone, my husband works a lot of hours, and I needed something to do. I guess you could say I have become obsessed with photography.”

Norman had worked jobs at Bauer Ladder in Wooster, for Broadway United Methodist Church as a financial secretary and had her own web-design business.

After she talked her husband into getting her a camera (she now shoots with a Nikon D300s), Norman started to teach herself to take pictures.

She attended workshops to learn any tricks she could to capture amazing images, especially of wildlife.

Her most recent adventure took her to New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, where she captured some shots of sandhill cranes going through a courtship dance. She also visited White Sands, as well.

“It was amazing to watch,” she said. “Their dance includes jumping up to 8 feet in the air, bowing to one another, wings spread outward or inward, and dance-like steps around each other.”

Norman said she snapped about 5,000 pictures of sandhill cranes.

“You take a lot of photographs and then you go back and see what you have,” she explained. “The camera can shoot seven frames per second so you can easily get 50 frames within a minute.”

She also has blogged about her adventures.

Her photography obsession also has helped her overcome some fears she had not long ago.

“I really never liked flying on an airplane and I didn’t like spiders,” she said.

Now she travels to many destinations in quest of the next big shoot and she has come face-to-face with her subjects when using macro photography.

“I’ve been really close to jumping spiders,” she said. “I guess by conquering some fears it has helped me explore the world.”

And Norman will be exploring more of the world in the coming months. She will head to Chincoteague Virginia to capture shots of Assateague’s wild horses in February, and she will head to the Eastern Sierras for a four- to five-day workshop in October.

And that’s not all.

“I’m trying to save my pennies because I would like to go to a camp where I would live six or seven days on the northern Alaska coastline,” she said. “You get the chance to photograph brown bears. You can get to within 10 to 20 feet of the bears.”

She said she isn’t worried about getting hurt because the bears have a good food source and the experienced guide has been following the animals for years.

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Norman said her husband Mark has given full support to her new obsession but isn’t too crazy about the bears.

“I’m really fortunate to have a husband who is understanding and doesn’t mind if I go off by myself for a few days,” she said. “But we will take a cruise or something every few years so we can do something together.”

Previous trips have taken her to Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland and Sweden.

Norman said she has been able to learn things from other photographers through Facebook. If they put one of her photos on their Facebook page or website it will introduce her work to other photographers. She also has some advice for people who may want to take up photography.

“You have to practice ... a lot,” she said. “You have to be patient and wait for the right light and for the animal to come along. It can be physically demanding (to get to the right spot). I’ve fallen, I’ve been stuck in the mud.”

She said one day she would like to give back for all of the enjoyment she has been given through photography.

“They have volunteer vacations where you can go clear trails in Yellowstone or go to Namibia to help rehabilitate baboons and monkeys,” she said.

Norman also believes photography is a continuing process to learn technique and composition. She also thinks she will be taking pictures for some time. She said one animal she still would like to photograph is big-horned sheep.

“I’d like to be there during rutting season,” she said. “They just jump along those cliffs.”